Lesbian: Triangles 38 -2021-

Triangle #38 had no equal sides. It was scalene, all sharp points and unbalanced desire. Maya was the smallest angle—acute, almost invisible, but aching to be bisected.

By 2021, she had memorized the hypotenuse of every glance across a dim room. The way Sarah would look at Jenna—just a second too long—while her own hand rested on the small of Maya’s back. That was Triangle #38. Not the first, not the last, but the one that cracked her sternum open on a Tuesday night in October.

2021 was the year of giving. Vaccines, apologies, excuses. Maya gave Sarah the space to choose. Sarah gave Jenna the keys to her apartment. Jenna gave Maya a look—not sorry, not triumphant. Just this is how it is .

The geometry was never simple. Not in the way they taught in high school, with clean proofs and right angles.

Maya watched the vector of Jenna’s thigh shift toward Sarah’s. She watched Sarah pretend not to notice. She watched herself pretend not to notice the pretending.

Three bodies in a rented cottage upstate. Firelight carving shadows into their chins. A bottle of natural wine sweating between them.